The Top Ten Reasons to Dump Trump in 2020

by Kelly Hyman

Overview

In the constant state of chaos and uncertainty that President Trump delights in creating, one thing is certain, it would be disastrous if he serves another term. Everyone is worse off with Trump—women, men, all ethnicities, farmers, industrialists, steelworkers, coal miners—everyone, except Trump. It’s time for change. Kelly Hyman, attorney, Democratic strategist, and popular speaker has created a practical, accessible, and enlightening quick reference guide to the top ten reasons to dump Trump in 2020, including:

• He lies about everything—immigration, air quality, the economy, the weather.
• He’s worked tirelessly to undermine fundamental human rights.
• He believes he’s “the chosen one,” and as such, what’s good for Trump is good for the country, if not the universe.
• He and his administration have sought to roll back key climate regulations at every turn.
• He withheld aid to Ukraine to compel them to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Trump doesn’t follow or believe in the Rule of Law. He debases it with his cheating, lying, ignoring legal requests, and publicly denigrating judges. And while he may be impeached for his actions, he won’t be convicted. Reading this book will heighten your awareness of the issues, help you become crystal clear about why Trump must not serve another term, and provide voting resources to get you—and others—to the polls to vote. Vote, vote, vote!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948181822
Publisher:	Strauss Consultants
Publication date:	11/08/2019
Pages:	100
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.21(d)

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

#1: THE LIES

WHY WOULD IT BE disastrous if Trump wins in 2020? Let's start with the lies. The constant, brazen, bald-faced lies he lets fly day in and day out, to the point where we can hardly believe a single word of what he says or tweets. As of August 5, 2019, Donald Trump has managed to lie an average of thirteen times per day since he took office. That's 12,019 false statements. Trump lies. About everything from President Barack Obama not being born in the Unites States to supposedly wiretapping his phones in Trump Tower, to losing the popular vote due to voter fraud, to fake praise from the Boy Scouts — the lies keep coming. Objective facts don't seem to matter to Trump at all. He makes up the world as he goes along, citing facts that aren't facts. It doesn't matter as long as they meet his agenda of always being the hero, of always winning, of always being right.

Many have been simply ludicrous and ridiculously transparent. At his energy speech in Monaca, Pennsylvania, he proudly stated: "And we have the cleanest air and water we've ever had in our country right now. The cleanest we've ever had." This is totally false. In 2018, three of the six pollutants identified by the Clean Air Act as toxic to human health were in fact higher than they were before Trump took office.

And Sharpie-gate! To cover his blunder of including Alabama in the states threatened by Hurricane Dorian (Alabama was not at risk, according to both the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center), he held up his Sharpie-altered weather map to show how correct he'd been about the storm's path. He also insisted on the weather bureau retracting their statement that Alabama was not at risk. As if that's not frightening enough, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a statement disavowing the comment. Where are our checkpoints if federal agencies can be bullied into swearing that the emperor's wearing new clothes (made in the US)? What — and whom — can we believe?

The lies get more dangerous. One of the things Trump misleads his followers about the most is immigration and our need to keep rapists, gangs, criminals, and rapists outside our borders (when very few of those are attributed to immigrants) and the border wall he promised his voters during his 2016 campaign. The most common falsehood he's told was that the border wall was already being built by the government (first Mexico's, then ours), when only maintenance and minimal additions had been done. Yet now that lie will become a reality. He's taking nearly $4 billion to build 175 miles of his wall by gutting Pentagon funds previously designated for military construction projects, including military base schools, "to boost his own ego," as Senator Chuck Schumer said.

What about the economy being "the best it's ever been"? Wrong. Growth since 2009 is 25 percent, which doesn't come close to the best. In the 1980s, growth was 38 percent, and in the 1990s, it was 43 percent. Sure, unemployment is way down. But that's not because everyone's happily digging coal, drilling oil, and building cars to meet EPA emissions rollbacks. It's because people are dropping out of the workforce, either giving up or become card-carrying members of the gig economy.

Trump has also lied about the Mueller "witch hunt." He claimed the cost to citizens was $40 million during the two years of the inquiry, when the cost was closer to $12 million. He tweeted that "Robert Mueller would have brought charges, if he had ANYTHING, but there were no charges to bring!" Again, not true. Mueller's hands were tied by longstanding Justice Department guidelines stating that a sitting president can't be indicted. (More about the Russia investigation in #10.)

Now, from the Democratic perspective, it's very clear how often Trump makes false claims. The real problem lies within the fact that most of his supporters seem to believe the majority of his lies (and this from a base dominated by evangelical Christians, who are taught that lying is a sin). This has a lot to do with where people get their news and information, and whether those sources are actually credible, something not always considered. People tend to get their news from sources they agree with.

Trump has coined the term "Fake News" to combat reports on his falsehoods, instead accusing credible news sources of telling falsehoods about his falsehoods. This tangled mess of accusations has only made the situation more difficult.

We also have to consider that his base knows he's lying but doesn't care. This in turn can be due to the following reasons:

• the lies confirm their beliefs about issues such as immigration and the need to do something about it;

• the truth of what he says doesn't matter to them nearly as much as the indication that he believes as they do;

• he is achieving the policies they've wanted for so long in social and policy issues; and

• the belief that "we're winning."

Researchers have found that Republicans are more likely than Democrats or Independents to consider outright lying morally acceptable for politicians, a belief primarily driven by Trump right-wing supporters' endorsement of his authoritarianism. In one study, participants were given three scenarios. In all three, a politician lied about an upcoming increase in the unemployment rate. In one scenario, the lie was overt. In another, the lie was by omission. Another used a truthful statement to mislead. Participants then rated each statement from ethical to unethical, dishonest to honest, and immoral to moral. They then indicated their party affiliation. The results were as stated above. When it comes to Trump's base, he can get away with lying and still retain their support.

Democratic discourse is only possibly if everyone agrees on the basic facts of the world around them. Opinions can vary, but not facts. But with each of Trump's lies, the foundation teeters. There has been conjecture about why Trump lies — everything from being a pathological liar, to being just plain deceitful and dishonest, to not even knowing the difference between facts and the world he wants to see. No matter the reason, he's dangerous. He has the power to spread misinformation and convince vulnerable people that it's all true. And he does spread misinformation, largely through Twitter. Never before in our country's history has a president had such direct, unfiltered, and immediate access to the public.

What can we do? As good citizens, we cannot swallow all that's fed us. We must investigate, research, and discuss ideas, leaders, and actions. We need to read, listen, think, speak out. We don't have to get Trump to admit the truth. That won't happen. But we can't stay quiet. We can't let it go. The presidency has been revered and respected throughout history, and we cannot allow a man like Donald Trump to continue defacing the reputation of this great nation.

CHAPTER 2

#2: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

SINCE HE WAS SWORN into office on January 20, 2017, President Donald Trump and his administration have worked tirelessly to implement policies that undermine fundamental human rights — 171 as of August 28, 2019. In fact, there have been so many, it's been difficult to choose which ones to highlight here, but some of the more recent violations of the Trump administration include:

• refusing to respond to UN investigators over potential human rights violations in the United States;

• proposing a rule to cut more than 3 million people from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps; and

• announcing that some children born to US military members and government employees working overseas wouldn't automatically be considered US citizens.

The United States director of the Humans Rights Watch, Nicole Austin-Hillery, said in commenting on the World Report 2019, "For the second year running, the Trump administration assaulted human rights in the US and abroad with an array of policies that harmed refugees, immigrants, women, and many others."

Some of Trump's most controversial human rights rollbacks have stemmed from his harmful immigration policies, including the travel ban targeting mostly Muslim countries, separating children from their parents after crossing the US border and seeking asylum, and the 2017 decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) act.

This executive order suspended the issuing of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas for five Muslim-majority countries — Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria and Yemen — plus North Korea and Venezuela. Bans affect those seeking asylum, including the at-risk Christians in the Middle East Trump swore to protect. It also affects science and the tech industry.

In Silicon Valley, 60 percent of workers in STEM jobs with a bachelor's degree or higher were born outside the US in 2017. More than half of the top American tech companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook were all founded by first- or second-generation immigrants. Now, two years after the ban was instated, tech and science are worried about the effect of cutting off talent, as top engineers are opting for other countries.

Zero-Tolerance Policy

In April 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions signed into effect a zero-tolerance policy. "If you cross this border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you," Sessions said. "If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you." As a result, thousands of children were torn from their parents or guardians at the US-Mexico border and placed under the supervision of the US Department of Health and Human Services. In June of that year, President Trump rescinded the order due to national and international criticism. US District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the children to be back with their families within thirty days, but it took longer than that. It turns out there was no plan for reunification. Today, though, all those nearly three thousand children have been reunited with a parent or relatives.

An internal government report found that during the Trump administration, thousands more children may have been separated from their families than the previously reported figure of nearly three thousand. Officials are unsure of the exact number. As of July 2019, seven hundred families fleeing violence and natural disasters for the safety and possibilities of the "shining city on the hill" have been separated since the policy was rescinded.

It gets worse. Reports state that children who were — and still are — kept in detention centers lack access to basic hygiene products such as toothbrushes and soap, and regularly must sleep on cold floors in overcrowded cells. They're often not equipped with blankets, and the temperatures are freezing. They frequently are crawling with lice. Since April 2018, five children have died in detention centers.

The End of DACA

Nine months after he entered office, President Trump terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Barack Obama created in 2012 through executive action after Congress refused to pass legislation to grant young immigrants permanent legal status. The program allowed undocumented immigrants, who were brought to the United States when they were young children, often referred to as Dreamers, to be temporarily shielded from deportation and allowed to live and work legally in the country.

Congress once again has the opportunity to permanently protect millions of Dreamers, many of whom have lived in this country for decades. The latest version of the Dream and Promise Act — a bill that's been in litigation for two decades — passed the House in June 2019. This bill would place millions of young undocumented immigrants and immigrants with temporary status on a pathway to US citizenship. Although a recent CBS news poll showed that 87 percent believe that DACA is good for America, it's doubtful it will pass the Republican-ruled Senate, with Mitch McConnell, the self-proclaimed "grim reaper" of Congress, vowing to thwart all progressive proposals on the Senate floor.

There are 3.6 million dreamers in this country, and 800,000 in the DACA program. What happens to them with DACA rescinded, their permits expiring in 2020, and the Dream and Promise Act most likely dead in the water? Do we boot them out of the only country they've ever known and send them "home"? Trump's comments?

What I'd like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan.

But our country and political forces are not ready yet.

There are two sides of a story. It's always tough.

With Trump's love of chaos and keeping others in a state of uncertainty, he seems just fine with leaving Dreamers and their families in limbo.

LGBTQ Rights

Trump hasn't only gone after those who aren't citizens (including their children); he's stripping the rights of more than 50 percent of US citizens — both those who identify with a gender other than their original biological one and women. The Trump administration began targeting LGBTQ rights as soon as he entered office. On his first day, all mentions of LGTBQ issues were removed from the White House website. Since then, the administration has targeted LGTBQ service members, attempting to ban them from serving in the military, even if they are willing to risk their lives for their country.

The Trump administration also proposed a controversial policy that no longer protects gay and transgender workers from discrimination. The memo refers specifically to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In that memo, sex is understood to only mean "biologically male or female." And that's not the end of it. The Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a change to the Equal Access Rule in May 2019 that would allow homeless shelters to deny access to transgender people on religious grounds.

Women's Rights

President Trump has also been launching a steady stream of attacks on women's rights during his time in office, which should be no surprise. He's a misogynist, sexualizes his daughters, has been accused by twenty-five women of sexual misconduct, and bragged to Billy Bush of Access Hollywood that he's "a star" with women and, because of his status, can "grab them by the pussy" whenever he wants.

Trump started by attacking Planned Parenthood for their involvement in abortions, even though the clinic provides PAPs, cancer screenings, contraception, and many other women's health services.

His administration has implemented a domestic gag rule that would bar organizations that provide abortion referrals from federal family planning funds, preventing organizations like Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding under Title X, the program that provides birth control and other health services to poor women. Planned Parenthood has stated that it will withdraw from the federal program rather than comply with the gag rule on referrals, though it's not clear how they'll make up the funds.

Trump reinstated a "global gag rule" that prohibits foreign NGOs from using US family planning aid to perform or promote abortion, then expanded the law to include global health aid to foreign NGOs, and then expanded the law even further, so that organizations that give money to foreign NGOs that perform abortions would not be eligible for US health aid.

In September 2017, the Department of Education announced that it was rescinding Obama-era guidelines on sexual assault in schools, narrowing the definition of sexual harassment and increasing the burden of proof in assault claims.

* * *

The human rights violations listed here only graze the surface of all those made by the Trump administration thus far. The only way to ensure that these horrible violations stop and return to the humanitarian policies we've practiced in the past, is to make sure Trump is not reelected in 2020.

CHAPTER 3

#3: WEAKENING ENDANGERED SPECIES PROTECTIONS

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION has done serious harm to some important progressive steps taken during the past ten to twenty years in terms of human rights. But their policies have also been harmful in terms of environmental protections, and most recently, moves to weaken endangered species protections.

Specifically, the Trump administration is moving forward on an overhaul to the United States environmental infrastructure. They want to weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and allow more oil and gas drilling, no longer requiring companies to consider the impact this drilling would have on the environment.

The ESA, passed in 1973, is for the conservation of endangered and threatened species and the ecosystems they depend on. The ESA places restrictions on a range of activities involving endangered and threatened animals and plants to help ensure their continued survival. Currently 2,417 plants and animals are protected under this act both in the United states and abroad. This law has saved 99 percent of the endangered species on its list from extinction, including the bald eagle, grizzly bear, and the humpback whale.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Top Ten Reasons to Dump Trump in 2020"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Kelly Hyman.
Excerpted by permission of Hybrid Global Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction, 1,
#1: The Lies, 7,
#2: Human Rights Violations, 13,
#3: Weakening Endangered Species Protections, 21,
#4: Environmental Protection Rollbacks, 27,
#5: Immigration, 33,
#6: Conflicts of Interest, 39,
#7: Fake News, 45,
#8: Cabinet Vacancies, 51,
#9: Not Fit to Lead, 55,
#10: The Russia Investigation, 61,
Conclusion, 67,
Acknowledgments, 69,
Notes, 71,
Resources, 87,
About the Author, 91,